Chapter 8. Non liquet.

March 8, 2022

"...On February 24, 2022, at 2:15 p.m. Kyiv time, Victorien Guérain received a call from an unknown number—in the morning, this twenty-six-year-old citizen had already learned from the news, which flowed like a stream, that a war had begun in Ukraine. But who was calling him at such an anxious time for his country? Perhaps one of the debtors for whom he was a state bailiff in one of the enforcement proceedings?! Or was it one of his friends or relatives?! One of these questions contained the truth—he was called about a debt: a debt that, in accordance with Article 17 of the Constitution of Ukraine, was the most important and responsible in his country—Victorien Guérain was called from the village council and told that he needed to appear as soon as possible at the territorial center for social support and staffing to update his registration data.

Hearing these words, Victorien Guérain, as a state official, as a lawyer, as a patriot, as a true citizen of a country predetermined for him, could not, was not able to, not come to the specified place at the time designated in the phone call—he perfectly realized, understood, and accepted his civic duty. A few minutes later, in the company of his faithful friend, state official, lawyer, patriot, and true citizen, Amaury Emon, Victorien Guérain was already stepping over the threshold of the territorial center for social support and staffing—the first question he heard, after stepping over the threshold of that institution, was: what does Victorien Guérain do for a living? Having provided answers to all the questions of the representatives of the territorial center, and also having heard the words that he and Amaury Emon were intended to be enrolled in the ranks of the newly formed guard company as soon as possible, Victorien Guérain was sincerely confused. Would a person who is a lawyer by education be more useful in an earthly trench in wartime than in a paper one?! Was he, who knew how to successfully overcome the darkest gaps in natural and material law, not destined to bring benefit to his state, because the irrational and inept use of personnel is the very first step to causing significant harm to the country?! Would he, a lawyer who graduated from the Mechnikov National University of Odesa with honors, be more useful in a trench than in his place, strictly designated for him by the state itself?!

Victorien Guérain was not an amateur—he was a true patriot, because in his time, when many avoided conscription, he went through all the hardships of it with unshakeable dignity: Victorien Guérain was devoted to his state, and accordingly to its laws. He, like no one else, realized that laws must be strictly observed and enforced, and especially when the gloomy hand of war knocked on the house of the state—without the observance and enforcement of laws in wartime, chaos is formed in the state. This is what he was once taught in that university, which was sophisticated with knowledge and experience—he had a sufficient level of legal awareness and legal understanding to make independent decisions and give them a legal assessment. Victorien Guérain was not part of the operational reserve of the first and second queues; he was enrolled in the mobilization reserve.

Having clarified with the representatives of the territorial center for social support and staffing the legal grounds for his conscription for military service, he was once again disappointed in the level of legal understanding and legal awareness of the people surrounding him—they claimed that he was subject to mobilization based on the Decree of the President of Ukraine of February 22, 2022, according to which those who were part of the aforementioned operational reserves were subject to conscription. They did not want to listen to his words at all—so they would have admitted that, having served a considerable number of years, they, those who were responsible for staffing in wartime and peacetime, did not bother to read a single norm of the current legislation: did they know about the provisions of Article 23 of the Law of Ukraine "On Mobilization and Mobilization Training"?! Of course not! The norms of the law existed, but they, due to their legal nihilism, had no idea about their existence—from the very moment Victorien Guérain and Amaury Emon stepped over the threshold of the territorial center, they immediately told its employees that they were state bailiffs, and accordingly, by virtue of the current legislation, were not subject to mobilization during wartime. But did this interest those who had power but embodied it in accordance with their whims, and not the current laws?!

By performing this kind of action, trying to call up those whom the state protected for more important and necessary purposes, these employees of the territorial center for social support and staffing caused truly irreparable damage to the very state, the protection of which they continuously produced… Amaury Emon, being no longer able to resist this stupidity, agreed with their opinion, and accordingly submitted to their will, and therefore was immediately enrolled in the guard company.

Victorien Guérain, however, striving for his principles, which also corresponded to the principles of a rule-of-law state, insisted on his own—on this day he was not called up for military service by mobilization, but on this day he was called a traitor to his homeland for the first time in his life: they claimed that people like him, Victorien Guérain, were unworthy of being called "Ukrainians" and deserved the censure and contempt of the people, as well as human society—they called him a pathetic worm, whose honor, name, and reputation, stained by such an act, would not be able to be washed away until the end of his life by thousands of good deeds. Having parted with Victorien Guérain in this way, the employees of that territorial center for social support and staffing returned the corresponding documents that had been seized from him a little earlier…